Volunteering Requirements

Parent participation is an extremely important part of the swimming season. Swim meets, parties, and breakfasts cannot be held without the help of our parents. It is required that a parent/guardian sign up for one volunteer position at each meet in which their swimmer is participating. Children whose parents/guardians do not sign up to volunteer will not be allowed to remain on the team. Sign-up for volunteering and meets is available through the Sign-Up Center.

Volunteer Job Descriptions

For team breakfasts and other activities, parents will be helping with set up, clean up, and supervision during the activity. Parents may also be asked to bring in food or other items that will help make the activity possible.

Swim meets cannot happen without the help of parent volunteers. As a team, we are required to provide a certain number of volunteers for each meet. There are a number of different ways that parents can help out so that their child can enjoy their summer swim meet experience. Described below are the positions that need to be filled at every swim meet. Please read them carefully and decide which positions you can fill during the swim meet.

Some positions require training and staying for the entire meet, and therefore count as double towards fulfilling your volunteer commitment to assist at four swim meets. The volunteer positions below require attendance at one of the Officials Training dates:

Referee**: This official supervises all other officials. He/she is the final authority when a disqualification has occurred and makes those decisions based on the technical rules of swimming. **Counts as double.

Stroke and Turn Judge**: This official makes sure that each swimmer is legally swimming each stroke based on the rules of that stroke. **Counts as double. This is the only position on this list that Halibut parents will be asked to fill.

Starter**: This official begins each race and ensures that each swimmer is given a fair race. **Counts as double.

The following positions do not require special training. If you are unfamiliar with the job, don’t be afraid to sign up. Other officials and experienced volunteers will help you learn what to do during the meet. From the below list, we usually only need timers and runners.

Head Timer: This official is in charge of the timers in all lanes. He/she will provide stopwatches to those times that have missed a start and will ensure that each timer is ready at the beginning of each race.

Timers: This position is to ensure that each swimmer is given an accurate time on their swim. There are generally three timers to each lane and all three times are written on the timing sheet. Stopwatches are provided by the team.

Ribbon writer: This position labels the correct ribbon that each swimmer has earned and then sorts them in the team ribbon box.

Clerk of Course**: This position places swimmers in their heat and lane according to the meet sheet. This is done only for individual events. Relays will be taken care of by the coaches. **This position does not require training, but does require staying for the entire meet, and therefore counts as double.